As a pet therapy team, my Sheltie, Nemo, and I have visited patients at the hospital and read with kids at the library.Nemo loves children, so he’s always excited about the reading program, although sitting in one place for 15-30 minutes can sometimes be a challenge! But my favorite place to visit is the hospital.I love bringing some canine sunshine into the dreary rooms and chatting with the patients about their pets at home.Many times I’m not sure who’s getting more out of our visits, me or the people we meet.

Julia and her fellow researcher, Frances Vlasses, a nursing professor at Loyola University, believe that animal-assisted therapy will one day become a standard part of healing.With a statistic like that, I’m hopeful that more animal lovers will be inspired to become therapy teams.